1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a self-scanning checkout device to which article codes are input by a customer, instead of the cashier.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a large number of large-scale stores such as supermarkets introduced various types of checkout devices for speeding up the checkout.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional checkout device. The checkout device has two tables TB1 and TB2 on which a basket BS is placed, a stationary scanner SC disposed between the tables TB1 and TB2 and an electronic cash register CR installed within the reach of a cashier standing in front of the scanner SC as an operator. The scanner SC optically scans and reads an article code affixed to an article in the form of a bar code. The cash register CR performs a settlement process based on article codes read by the scanner SC.
When a customer places the basket BS storing articles to be purchased on the table TB1, the cashier takes out the articles one at a time from the basket BS, causes the scanner SC to read the article code of the article and sets the article into another basket BS which is previously placed on the table TB2 and is first empty. In the settlement process, the cash register CR sequentially registers article data (an article name, a unit price, and the like) corresponding to an article code from the scanner SC as sales data, causes the sales data to be displayed on a cashier display unit DP1 and customer display unit DP2, totalizes all of the sales data items according to the operation of a keyboard KB, and issues a receipt on which the result of totalization containing article names, unit prices, the number of articles, and the total amount is printed by a printer PR. A drawer DW is used to receive cash paid by the customer, and a sub-keyboard SKB is used to input article codes of articles such as bargains or vegetables to which no article code is affixed or articles whose bar code is stained.
However, if a cashier quickly inputs article codes of articles, the display content of the customer display unit DP2 is updated at short cycles, and it becomes difficult for the customer to completely confirm the article names and unit prices of the articles on the customer display unit DP2. Further, at the time of congestion, the cashier cannot afford to arrange the cash received in the drawer DW and check the amount of money, and he or she bears a mental and physical burden since the time waiting for customers' turn for checkout depends only the cashier's operation.
FIG. 2 shows another conventional checkout device capable of eliminating the above drawback. The checkout device has two scanning lanes L1 and L2 which are formed with substantially the same construction as that of the checkout device of FIG. 1 and symmetrically disposed with respect to the cashier CHR. However, the scanner SC of each scanning lane does not have such a sub-keyboard SKB as shown in FIG. 1 and has a switching section SW for instructing the start and end of scanning instead of the sub-keyboard.
A customer CST selects one of the scanning lanes L1 and L2, for example, the scanning lane L1, places the basket BS containing articles to be purchased on the table TB1 on the scanning lane L1 side, and operates the switching section SW to instruct the scanner SC to start scanning. After this, the customer CST takes out the articles one by one from the basket BS, causes the scanner SC to read the article code of the article, and puts the article into another basket BS which is previously placed on the table TB2 and is first empty. After the article codes of all of the articles are input by use of the scanner SC, the customer CST operates the switching section SW to instruct the scanner SC to end the scanning. The cash register CR on the scanning lane L1 side registers article data (an article name, a unit price, and the like) corresponding to each of the article codes sequentially supplied from the scanner SC as sales data, causes the sales data to be displayed on the cashier display unit DP1 and customer display unit DP2, totalizes all of the sales data items according to the operation of the keyboard KB, and issues a receipt on which the result of totalization containing article names, unit prices, the number of articles, and the total amount is printed by the printer PR. As regards the foregoing articles whose article codes are difficult to be input by use of the scanner SC, the cashier CHR receives these articles from the customer CST and then their article codes by using the keyboard KB, for example.
In the checkout device shown in FIG. 2, since the customer inputs the article codes, he or she can confirm the article name and unit price of an article whose article code, on the customer display unit DP2, and then input a code of the next article. The cashier has only to perform an input operation on only the articles received from the customer, his or her burden is greatly eased. Though the cashier has to monitor the customers who input the article codes on the scanning lanes L1 and L2 and carry out an operation of the cash register CR necessary for receiving cash from or giving cash to the customer, it is hardly a burden to the cashier. Therefore, the cashier can afford to arrange the cash received in the drawer DW and check the amount of money even at the time of congestion. Further, since the input operation using the scanner SC is simple, even if a customer performs it in place of a cashier, the time for waiting customers' turn for the checkout is not lengthened so greatly at the time of congestion. When a customer's turn comes, time for the customer to look on the operation of the cashier without doing anything can be shortened by time corresponding to the input operation carried out by the customer. Therefore, a good impression can be given to the customer. In addition, since one cashier is in charge of two scanning lanes L1 and L2, the labor cost can be reduced.
Nevertheless, even the above checkout device has the following drawback. That is, when the customer of one of the scanning lanes tries to hand a cashier an article whose article code is difficult to input using the scanner SC, the cashier cannot receive the article in some cases if the cashier is arranging the cash or checking the amount of money or the cashier is dealing with a customer of the other scanning lane. In such a case, the customer tends to wait until the cashier becomes free. If an article is handed to the cashier, most customers confirm the name and unit price of the article displayed on the customer display unit DP2 according to an article code input by the cashier and do not resume the input operation of article codes before the article is returned to the customer from the cashier. If the input operation is thus interrupted, the checkout speed cannot be increased more greatly than expected.